Page 193 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 May 1989
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woman's touch. I say in conclusion that I am encouraged by the fact that women are very much thought of in my portfolio, but we intend to do a lot more.
MR COLLAERY (3.35): What we are about is addressing an historical imbalance, and no persons through gender should have their life paths changed simply because of how they were born. I speak as someone who was brought up for a good part of my life by a widow in a widowed environment after the war, so I feel very sensitive about this subject. We should all realise that in the community there are at all times, in peace and in war, women living alone and they are vulnerable, and they are more vulnerable when at the same time they are caring for others. The phenomenon in our society at the moment points to the increasing, not decreasing, vulnerability of women, in my view.
I also speak from some years of practice in the law, and particularly from a close involvement in a suburb of Canberra with a women's refuge. I do put a note of warning of course on what the Chief Minister suggested - perhaps she did not intend to make that suggestion. From a professional point of view, she may wish to seek further advice as to whether refuges should be opened exclusively for women who are the victims of violence. There is often an unnecessary focus on a refuge, often around Christmas time, booze time, when there is an influx of women who have suffered violence. It does tend to create an atmosphere of foreboding and fear, particularly amongst the children who follow their parents into refuges. I would ask the Chief Minister to consult her professional advisers closely on that.
I am absolutely outraged as a practitioner in this city not to be able to find - and this has often been my experience - crisis accommodation for a woman who has to leave her home. I am also outraged by the fact that in many cases the party with money can expel from the home the party without money. The legal profession has much to answer for, I say with regret. The fact is that some women go to refuges to preserve their life and welfare, and often women go to refuges to care for their children who are threatened. Often in these dramatic situations I have found that the legal profession by use of restriction orders aid the male elements in the population. In my view, there is a great emphasis in the law on male patronage. It is offensive and it persists in swelling the numbers of people in refuges when those women should stay in their homes with their children in an atmosphere which they know and their men should be expelled, and locked up if necessary. We need at an early date to look at the possibility of the Housing Trust allocating homes quickly in this area to care for crisis situations. I suggest that we need to speak to the Minister for Housing and Urban Services about coordinating some of those issues at an early date.
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